Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary - Alexander Fleischmann Josefine van Zanten - Philip Morris International
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Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
Inclusive
Future
Early 2022
Summary
Alexander Fleischmann
Josefine van Zanten
This study was conducted with full
independent editorial control by IMD and
funded by Philip Morris International.
1
Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
Equity, inclusion & diversity (EI&D) is often of the project delved into the recent social
regarded as a set of preachy “eat your greens” movements and socioeconomic factors that have
issues that organizations are socially pressured influenced EI&D needs so powerfully. Part 3
into adopting. This attitude towards EI&D is briefly looked at practical tools to measure and
outmoded and out of touch with the complex facilitate inclusion, introducing the Inclusion Net
socioeconomic conditions which organizations Promoter Score (iNPS).
operate in today. In fact, it is becoming apparent
that the discipline of fostering EI&D makes This Early 2022 Summary is designed to
organizations more responsive, more resilient, provide an overview of project’s findings
better informed and better able to recruit and and conclusions.
retain employees.
There are strong operational and moral
imperatives for diversity. A diverse workforce
can bring a broad range of experiences
and views to bear on the complex business
challenges of this time. Organizations are also
finding that the growing ranks of Millennial and
Generation Z employees support diversity from
a moral perspective, and indeed expect it as a
normal condition of life.
However, simply having a broad diversity of
employees, while necessary, is not in itself
sufficient for an organization to thrive. To reap
the benefits of diversity, an organization must
also become more inclusive. Gender and
nationality, two key elements of diversity, can
be defined, identified, and measured objectively.
By contrast, inclusion is subjective. It is about
how employees feel an organization treats
them in relation to their diversity. This makes
inclusiveness harder to define and measure.
Organizations are keen to have clear
definitions, tools, and metrics to define EI&D
operationally and implement policy. To this
end, the International Institute for Management
Development (IMD), sponsored by Philip Morris
International (PMI), undertook with full editorial
independence the Inclusive Future project.
Part 1 of the project involved research into
academic literature, consultants’ approaches,
and corporate case histories to review current
best practice to measure inclusion. Part 2
2
Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
3Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
Inclusive
Future Part 1
Topline
Summary
4Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
5Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
Inclusive
This brings its own difficulties in measuring
inclusion for all employees. On each question,
it is not possible to determine to what extent
Future Part 1 employees’ responses authentically reflect their
experience and to what extent they are influenced
by how they think they “should” respond. Then,
Topline
for surveys as a whole, there is the challenge of
balancing practicality and thoroughness. Longer
survey questionnaires offer the benefit of greater
Summary depth, but with the risk that respondents get tired
of answering; shorter surveys are more practical
but risk missing important information.
The business case for EI&D is well researched The timing, frequency and locality of surveys also
and well documented. We therefore started vary too widely to permit standardized metrics
the Inclusive Future project by analyzing the to be developed. Among major corporations,
work that leading academics, consultants and Microsoft fields an annual employee satisfaction
corporations have carried out to foster it. It survey including questions on inclusion, and
became clear, as outlined below, that several sends out short surveys every day to a random
factors have made it impossible to establish selection of employees. BP stopped using
broadly agreed benchmarking metrics to track employee surveys (and with them its inclusion
diversity and inclusion across industries. index) in favor of more immediate and short
For diversity, legal constraints in many countries forms of surveys and data from other IT-
make it impossible to gather data on important generated sources.
dimensions such as race and sexuality.
Consequently, organizations cannot reliably map In short, Part 1 of the project did not yield
and track their own diversity, nor compare it with a unified index or metric to guide EI&D.
that of other organizations. Nevertheless, from the research, we were able
to generate a broad model to be explored and
Inclusion is even more of a conundrum. Differing elaborated in Part 2. The crucial element of this
operational definitions of inclusion have led model is “psychological safety”, denoting an
to different elements being identified and inclusive environment in which all employees
measured. Some models of inclusion highlight feel able to express their unique perspective
personal needs for feelings of “belongingness”, without fear of negative consequences. This is
“uniqueness” and “authenticity”. Others focus fostered by “inclusive leadership”, a key driver
on organizational needs for participation and for creating inclusive work environments that
fairness. Even where different organizations balance employee needs to feel part of the whole
focus on the same elements of inclusion, there is (“belongingness”) while remaining authentically
no common approach to the nature and number themselves (“uniqueness”). Inclusive leadership
of questions included in their surveys. requires a nuanced style that reflects shifts in
Apart from gender and nationality, whichever society. It balances each individual employee’s
other elements of diversity are measured, the need to feel part of the whole (“belongingness”)
process of measurement inevitably involves with their need to feel that their individuality is
individuals completing self-report questionnaires. recognized and appreciated (“uniqueness”).
6Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
7Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
Inclusive
Future Part 2
Topline
Summary
8Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
MeToo 11
Black Lives Matter 12
Socioeconomic Inequalities 14
COVID-19 – The Disruptor 16
Millennials, Generation Z 17
& Technology
9Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
Inclusive
Future Part 2
Topline
Summary
As Part 1 found, the imperatives for equity,
inclusion & diversity (EI&D) have been broadly
recognized, researched, and enacted for well
over a decade. However, three recent social
factors have made key elements of EI&D more
starkly apparent to everyone. Specifically, MeToo
has made individual cases of sexual harassment
and sexism visible, spurring people to examine
ways in which gender is part of general power
imbalances. The 2020, the murder of George
Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis
made the Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement
and racial inequity more salient not only in the
United States, but around the world. And since
early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic has revealed
and exacerbated the chronic Socioeconomic
Inequalities that present threats to democracy,
order, and economic growth.
This summary of Part 2 of the Inclusive Future
project starts by examining MeToo, BLM and
Socioeconomic Inequalities before looking at how
EI&D dynamics have been disrupted by COVID-19
and accelerated by fast-developing technology
and generational change. It then proposes
ways in which organizations including PMI can
recognize these shifts and work constructively
with them to the benefit of all.
10Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
MeToo The MeToo movement has raised awareness
that sexual abuse and inequity cut across more
than a simple sectional divide between male and
It’s over 15 years since MeToo was first used
female. This has led to a growing understanding of
by Black activist Tarana Burke to encourage
“intersectionality”. The term refers to conjunctions
conversations about sexual violence. Tellingly,
of various individual attributes such as gender,
it wasn’t until MeToo was used by white actress
race, class, sexual orientation, and physical
Alyssa Milano in 2017 that it rapidly gained
ability that may lead to a person suffering inequity
momentum and resonated around the world.
or exclusion. With specific regard to MeToo,
The MeToo movement has sparked extensive we found that women and people with a lower
revelations of sexual harassment and sexual socioeconomic background remain at a higher
violence that women have endured in the risk of sexual harassment and abuse compared
workplace. It has popularized the notion of to others.
toxic masculinity to denote a prevalent type of
destructive male culture that harms men too.
Hidden behavior that had previously been tolerated
as unwelcome but “normal” has therefore been
“denormalized”. It’s not just predatory male
behavior, but also many other everyday sexist
behaviors that inhibit, marginalize, or exclude
women from being heard and taken seriously. For
example, it is now recognized that men interrupt
women 30% more often than they do other men,
heavily impacting women’s ability to be seen as
leaders. When women of all backgrounds are not
heard, important intelligence goes to waste.
The MeToo movement has driven a substantial
shift in mindsets, prompting many men to
become advocates and allies of women. However,
it has also become a contested field. Skeptics,
opponents, and indeed many ordinary members of
the public, are concerned that MeToo risks going
“too far”. Some contend that it strains relationships
between men and women. A common trope is that
MeToo would lead to a “policing of sex”, revealing
the mistaken perception that the movement is not
about consensual sex, but about abuse of power
at work. Some fear that it potentially exposes
too many men to false accusations of sexual
abuse, although the irony here is that this makes
survivors of sexual abuse more hesitant to report
it, and data demonstrates that less than 5% of
denunciations are false.
11Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
BLM Like MeToo, BLM has shone a revealing light
on established structures of power and relative
privilege. As with MeToo, it has sparked waves
Like MeToo, the origins of Black Lives Matter (BLM)
of debates, advocacy, and solidarity, but also
go back several years. The movement was started
resistance and contestation. Critics counter
in the United States by three Black women in 2013
BLM with statements such as “All Lives Matter”
to highlight cases of police violence, and to show
and claims that affirmative action leads to
how Black lives are shaped by a history of slavery
white employees being “the real victims
and colonialism. However, it wasn’t until the
of discrimination”.
murder of George Floyd in 2020 that the movement
gained traction in the United States and beyond,
prompting conversations about racial topics not
just in North America but around the globe.
A major effect of BLM has been to raise the
visibility of systemic racism and racial injustice
in many countries. It has compelled corporate
executives to look hard at these issues and ask
what they can do to change things. A survey of the
HR Policy Association found that the movement led
to an 85% expansion of inclusive activities, an 85%
increase in C-suite involvement, and 70% starting/
expanding unconscious bias training.
The source of BLM, the United States, has its
own unique history of racism. However, BLM
has resonated in many other countries that have
their own local constellations of racism and
xenophobia. It has emboldened advocates and
social movements to highlight local racial issues
that may previously have been ignored, dismissed,
or denied.
As with MeToo, questions of intersectionality
and visibility are raised by Black Lives Matter.
It is striking that BLM achieved global spread
because of the highly visible murder of a Black
man, while much of the groundwork for the
movement was done with little visibility by Black
women (two of whom identify as queer). The
vocal support of many companies for BLM has
prompted questions about the visibility and lives
of underprivileged groups working in the lower
ranks of such companies.
12Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
13Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
Socioeconomic Inequality
The traction gained by MeToo and BLM have shown
that gender and race are two factors of inequality
that are relatively clear to discern and define.
Both are elements of “the ways in which access
to resources and opportunities are differentially
distributed across a particular population”.
Other factors include social class, educational
attainment, and income distribution. This is what
may be termed “socioeconomic inequality”. They
are less visible and less readily dramatized in
media coverage.
Elements of socioeconomic inequality have
arguably been a recurring theme of politics for
a long time. Growing inequalities of wealth have
been influentially highlighted by best-selling
academic Thomas Piketty in his 2014 book Capital
in the Twenty-First Century and his 2020 book
Capital and Ideology.
Socioeconomic inequality is a challenge for
organizations because they themselves are part
of the problem. In many cases, their inclusiveness
does not stretch to socioeconomic diversity.
Whether deliberately or inadvertently, they
perpetuate socioeconomic inequality through their
hiring practices, promotion tracks, role allocations,
compensation schemes, and organizational
structures. Fortunately, organizations that are
committed to EI&D can be part of the solution.
They can become aware of socioeconomic diversity
and ensure that socioeconomic background is
included in their systems to identify talent.
14Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
15Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
COVID-19 – The Disruptor Among the pluses, hybrid and blended working
can potentially enable employees to custom design
their working days to optimize meeting their
General lack of awareness about, or attention to,
work goals while accommodating other priorities
these inequalities was tellingly illustrated by the
such as family, fitness, or hobbies. Among
claim in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic
the challenges, on the other hand, is creating
that “we are all in the same boat”. Within just a
and maintaining an environment in which all
few weeks it became apparent that in fact we
employees feel included and heard, whether they
“are in the same storm but not in the same boat”.
are present in person or online. While the formal
COVID-19 has had the effect of making inequalities
aspects meetings may be run inclusively, remote
glaringly apparent to all and actually making them
participants risk not being included in informal
worse for many.
comments, jokes, and conversations.
In terms of health impacts, sickness and death
from COVID-19 has disproportionately hit
disadvantaged populations such as people of color
in the United States and the United Kingdom.
In the workplace, women, Black people, young,
less educated and precarious workers were hit
hardest by reduced paid hours and more job
losses. Among workers fortunate enough to be
able to work from home in relative comfort and
safety, many women found themselves juggling
the tasks of work and providing care for children
and the elderly. Consequently, working through
the pandemic, more women than men have felt
stressed, exhausted, and excluded. This effect is
even more marked among LGBTQ+ women and
women with disabilities.
At the time of writing (early 2022) the pandemic is
still not over, so it is not possible to predict its long-
term effects with any certainty. What we can say
for sure is that COVID-19 has accelerated the pace
of technological change, giving many organizations
and employees prolonged experience of working
remotely. Hybrid working, mixing on-site and
remote working, is likely to become part of
the “new normal”. This will also mean more
blended meetings that involve both in-person and
remote employees.
16Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
Millennials, Generation Z & Technology
The rising generational cohorts of Millennials and
Generation Z bring some distinctive and related
attributes to the workplace. They embody some
of the big shifts in awareness and mindsets that
organizations must adapt to as they work at
fostering diversity and inclusion.
Both cohorts use technology fluently, especially
social media technology. Both cohorts seek
achievements and constant development while
expecting a good work-life balance. Generation Z
in particular supports movements such as MeToo
and BLM and is apt to voice their support online
with so-called ‘hashtag activism’. Together, these
cohorts are accelerating the development of
inclusive cultures that value diversity and fairness,
work-life balance, and purpose.
Even more than most, Millennial and Generation Z
employees need to feel that they are being heard
by their employers. Otherwise, they tend to voice
their concerns and air their grievances publicly
through social media. This can prove problematic
for organizations, especially in a digitally
accelerated environment where organizations are
likely to be scrutinized, fact-checked and called
to account.
17Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
Inclusive
Future Part 3
Topline
Summary
18Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
19Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
Inclusive
a positive feedback loop, research indicates that
sharing the results of inclusion metrics with a
broad internal audience spurs behavioral change.
Future Part 3 To allow comprehensive measurement of progress
over time, it is advisable to compile an inclusion
index as part of an Employee Engagement survey,
Topline comprising 6-10 standard questions covering the
key components of inclusion, including:
Summary •
•
Psychological safety
Uniqueness
Measuring inclusion and inclusive leadership • Fairness
is not an end in itself. An open and pluralistic
organizational culture, i.e., an inclusive working • Participation
environment, increases an organization’s • Belonging
resilience and prepares it to proactively navigate
the sort of disruptive periods we have experienced • Authenticity
since 2020. When the data is collected and
analyzed properly, the results offer unique insights Many organizations already have questions that
to transform an organization and foster inclusion measure some of these components in established
and inclusive leadership throughout. As Parts 1 employee engagement surveys. They can continue
and 2 found, a comprehensive approach is needed with their established questions and complement
that focuses on uniqueness, fairness/equity and them with new inclusion-focused questions to
psychological safety and also takes belongingness, encompass the six inclusion components listed
participation, and authenticity into account. above, thereby getting a fuller and more accurate
For organizations that are interested in evolving picture. The phrasing of such questions can serve
EI&D, Part 3 proposes a menu with a core set a dual purpose: to gather information about past
of standardized questions to measure results and present behavior, and to influence future
over time; qualitative and quantitative methods behavior. Scalar agree/disagree statements such
and tools to gain varied types of insights; and as: “I am committed to improve my leadership
recommendations about inclusion nudges to spur skills in terms of active, humble listening” can
behavioral change. In an interesting example of nudge the respondent to do more of the behavior.
This type of survey measurement is thorough, but
takes time and is costly. To complement it, a new
pulse tool is currently being tested: the Inclusion
Net Promotor Score (iNPS). It asks respondents
to rate: “How likely are you to recommend our
organization to a friend or colleague from an
underrepresented group as an inclusive place to
work?” (By “underrepresented group” we mean
women, people from ethnic or racial minorities,
with different sexual orientation or different
20Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
abilities.) This single-scale evaluation can be
enriched with an open-ended free-text question:
“What is the one thing (name of organization)
could do to improve this?”
The iNPS is an easily implantable way (both in
terms of time and cost) to obtain quantitative
information. Its usefulness hinges on being
able to apply intersectional analysis to the
results. It should be clear which demographics
in the organization find it inclusive enough to
recommend – and which don’t. Intersectional data
can be gathered by encouraging respondents to
voluntarily and anonymously self-identify in terms
of belonging to underrepresented groups.
Quantitative surveys such as the iNPS yield
numbers that measure responses to a pre-
set list of questions and statements. To obtain
richer, more detailed information, it’s advisable
to complement quantitative surveys with
qualitative methods. Provided a psychologically
safe environment is fostered, valuable insights
can be found in open-ended conversations with
employees, whether in more formal settings such
as focus groups and appraisal sessions, or less
formal settings such as lunch-and-learn sessions.
Another source to obtain information is the use
of artificial intelligence (AI). AI is already widely
used by HR. We anticipate that AI analysis of
communications will be further developed to
gather data relevant to EI&D purposes. As with
both quantitative and qualitative methods, it
is essential to guard against bias. This can be
achieved by having multidisciplinary teams design
the gathering system, interpret the results, and
apply the learnings with intersectional input.
21Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
Key Points
& Guidelines
22Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
23Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
Key Points
To encourage everyone to foster inclusiveness,
an organization must clearly articulate its values,
strategy, and position on EI&D. This provides
& Guidelines essential reference points to help leaders at
every level become visible advocates and models
of inclusion. Equally, this articulation helps the
An organization is inevitably surrounded by organization to manage the EI&D missteps that are
diversity in the societies where it operates. This bound to arise.
is a fact, not an option. Some forms of diversity There is no universal gold standard to measure
are more visible than others, but they are no less even diversity, let alone inclusion, because there
important for that. The organization needs to are too many variables and constraints. In the
be aware that many different forms of diversity absence of an ISO-type set of universal standards,
combine in intersectionality. an organization must both have a wide-angle view
An organization needs diversity to develop the of inequality as a whole and zoomed-in views of
skills and benefits of being inclusive. Without unique intersectional experiences.
diversity, an organization tends to default to ‘group Beyond all the complexities of measuring and
think’, where people simply agree with each other. tracking EI&D, organizations should be guided by
Diversity helps an organization learn to operate four clear principles:
better, whereas a homogenous (non-diverse)
workforce, with less diversity, is a risk factor for all
forms of harassment.
Rapid changes in operating environments have
become faster and more complex since 2020. It is
therefore essential for an organization to develop
inclusive leadership to benefit from the diversity
in the organization. Inclusive leaders don’t think
or act as if they have all the answers. Rather, they
listen with humility so that diverse employees feel
safe to speak up and contribute without fear of
negative consequences.
Creating more equitable, inclusive, and diverse
work cultures requires willingness to engage in
difficult conversations about issues such as sexism
and racism. It involves using emotionally freighted
terms such as patriarchy, toxic masculinity,
intersectionality, psychological safety, and privilege
that some employees may find challenging or
politically loaded. It takes leaders with the skills to
foster psychological safety where emotive issues
can be discussed honestly and inclusively. It takes
inclusive leadership to prevent such conversations
from becoming “us versus them”.
24Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary
1 Foster psychological safety above all,
so that all employees can contribute
their experience authentically without
fear of negative consequences.
2 With psychological safety as the
linchpin, attend to the six key
components of inclusion:
• Personal components (belongingness, authenticity and uniqueness)
• Organizational components (participation and fairness)
• Matrix Component (without diversity, there is no inclusion; just like
minded people echoing each other
3 Develop inclusive leadership, with
humble listening and willingness
to become allies and advocates of
underrepresented employees.
4 Increase visibility so that all
employees get noticed and included,
especially those who may be less
visible because of intersectional traits
such as gender and race.
25Inclusive Future Early 2022 Summary 26
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